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In the 


Gardens 


of God 


J. A. Edgerton 



In the Gardens of God 



James Arthar Edgcrton 



THE ESSENE 

59 Park Place, New York 
1904 



LIBRARY of CONGRtS? 
Two Copies Received 
JUN 2 1904 
- Copyrleht Entry 

CLASS ts- xXo. No. 

COPY B 



T6 i^*- 



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COPYRIGHT 1904 

BY 

JAMES ARTHUR EDGERTON 






For thee, O dear, dear country ! — Bernard de Cluny. 

So he, who firmly beheves that the future life is full 
of glory and gazes at it with a certain clearness of 
vision, endures everything, and despises everything in 
order to attain it. — Savonarola. 



In the Gardens of God, 



In the Gardens of God. 

I. 

In the stillness of evening's hour, 

As the cares of day depart, 
Like the dew stealing over the flower, 

A longing steals over the heart — 
A longing for something we cannot define, 
A something divine, 
A glory we've lost, or a beauty to gain, 
A dream of a height we have yet to attain, 
A heaven that waits 

In some bright land afar. 
Through scintillant gates 
That are standing ajar, 
A green shore awash by a sun-molten sea, 
A merging in God in some aeon to be — 
'Tis a vision like this, 
A thirst after bliss. 



8 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

I 

That steals o'er the heart in the evening hour. 
As the dew steals over the flower. 



II. 

What unto the weary spirit brings 

This yearning for other things, 

This yearning for regions unseen, unknown? 

Do seraphim, fresh from the heavenly throne, 

For the love they bear. 
Assemble 'round. 

With bodies too rare 
For sight or sound. 
And in spirit language a tale unfold 
Of beauties unpictured and joys untold, 

That the soul can never resist? 
Is a subtle mist shaken from off their wings. 

As from night-wings the dewy mist, 
That unto the weary spirit brings 
This yearning for higher and better things? 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 
III. 

The thoughts drift away from the things of earth 

And a vision divine has birth. 

The power that draws them to look above 

Is the magnet of love. 

There are those we have lost in the years agone 

And we follow them on 

To a sweeter dawn — 

We follow them on, till we see them stand, 

Their faces bright 

With a radiant light 
That shines o'er the Spirit Land. 
Our thoughts drift away from the things of earth 
And a wonderment deep has birth. 

IV. 
Where is the Spirit Land? 
Is it in some realm afar 
Beyond the bounds of the farthest star? 
Does Beauty dwell there 
With a smile so rare 



lO IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

That it spreads about her a perfect day, 
Of which earth gains but a glimmering ray, 
Shining across some mystical strand 
That leads to this wonderful Spirit Land? 

V. 

Some Elysian clime 

In a land sublime 

Out of the bounds of space and time; 

Some far away realms 

Where the day overwhelms 

In a glorious flood the shadows of night; 

Where Thought ever dwells in a rich delight: 

Where the spirit floats free 

On an airy sea 

Of bliss born from beauty and harmony. 

Whose billows of splendor lap over the soul 

And over the face of Eternity roll. 

In this mystical home 

In the world to come, 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

Where enraptured, immortal spirits roam, 

In this land sublime, 

This Elysian clime 

Out of the bounds of space and time? 

VI. 

"Would'st know?" a whisper says, "then come. 

Over the starry fields we'll roam. 

Come with me, come with me, 

Past the isles of the starry sea, 

Where little worlds circle and great worlds flee. 

Come with me. 
Past the suns that gleam afar. 
Past the boundary of the star, 
Over Infinity's golden bar. 

Come with me. 
Out of time, out of place. 
Into Eternity, out of space, 
Into Existence' other phase, 

Come with me. 



tore 



12 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

Build there your temple o'er all supreme. 
Believe; and your faith fulfills your dream. 
Into that state that lies in wait 
Faith alone is the entering gate." 
A whisper says to my spirit, "Come. 
Over the starry fields we'll roam." 

VII. 

The earth, with its burden of life, whirls free 

In an irregular race. 
The myriad orbs of Immensity, 

That sprinkle Eternity's face. 
Wheel on, wheel on, through the vasty sea, 

Through the bottomless deeps of space- 
Younger worlds, worlds new-born. 
Entering but life's morn, 
Worlds that maturer beauties adorn, 
Worlds of their beauty shorn. 
Worlds grown old and feeble and gray, 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. I3 

Ready to sink from very decay 

Back to the source, 

The fountain of force, 

That started them forth in their circling course. 

God's lands stretch ever on, 

O'er them His banners of light unfurled. 

On past the splendor of sun, 

On past the w^onder of world ; 

Now on and away 

Through the halls of day. 

Through rolling seas of radianc'e bright. 
Through chaotic darkness as well as light. 
Through the halls of day and of night ; 

Where circling in clustered array, 
Wheeling in dizzy flight. 

Dotting the face 

Of boundless space. 

Moving forever in endless race, 

Roll, majestic and broad and free, 

The myriad orbs of Infinity. 



14 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

VIII. 

Till, over a golden bar, 

The boundary of the star, 

Lieth a realm afar ; 

Riseth an isle sublime, 

In an Elysian clime, 

Out of space, out of time ; 

Over a mystical strand, 

Lieth a beautiful land, 

Dvi^elleth a heavenly band ; 

Reigneth Eternity's King 
Upon the Infinite shore. 

With seraphs that sweetly sing 
His praises forevermore. 

These starry worlds that glow 
Like far-off lights in this, 

These are the gardens of souls 
That, 'neath the splendor which rolls 
Down from the sun-like eye 
Of Divinity, 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. IS 

Their flowers may blow 
And their fruits may grow, 

To be gathered at length in this kingdom of His, 
Into the radiant land afar 
Beyond the boundary of the star. 

IX. 
For these myriad worlds are rife 
With Life— 

With beings glad in the ecstasy, 
The sweet and immortal mystery, 
Of that new-old miracle, To Be. 
"Yes," a voice from the Silence saith, 
"Glad through the life that seems death" ; 
For, as wind from the Northland blowing 

Under a wantry sky 
Breathes on the Southland glowing 

And blights, as it passes by. 
Till the rivers are stilled in their flowing 

And the roses shudder and die; 



l6 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

And, as winds of the South in the earUest Spring 

Fly North with a breath of the Sun and bring 

The beauty and gladness of new Hfe again, 

That breathe o'er the treetop and breathe o'er the plain 

And breathe a life into the pattering rain, 

That coax forth the grass and the blossoms, and break 

The sleep of the Earth, till he starts, broad awake — 

So, on all these beings, Mutation's breath 

Blows, and they crumble away into death ; 

Blows, and they fall as the delicate forms 

Too tender to bear 'gainst the wintry storms ; 

But a whisper says that in vanishing 

They've but gone to a realm where are playing 
Zephyrs and breezes bland, 

And the softest of winds are straying 
Out of a sun-kissed land, 
To arise in the sweeter awakening 
Of a gladder and a more beautiful Spring. 
"Yes," whispers say, 
"O'er the Meadows of May, 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 17 

The Gardens of God in fields Elysian. 
That sometimes appear unto us in vision, 
Where all things ever 

Are sweet and new, 
Where Time is a river 

That's fed with dew, 
And Life seems just begun. 

There souls, like roses, are growing, 

Like lilies and bluebells, are blowing, 

Like daisies, are springing. 

Like glad birds, are singing, 
Warmed by a heavenly Sun. 
For they all have left this Winter of strife. 

To bloom, eternal 

In realms supernal. 
In the beautiful Summer of Life." 

X. 

Some voice in my inmost ear 
Is whispering low and sweet, 



l8 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

"The kingdom of heaven is here, 

Even here at your very feet. 
The country in which the immortals are, 
While stretching away beyond sun and star, 

Is not in a distant sphere ; 
Though as far as the poles of being are far, 

'Tis as near as the soul is near." 

XI. 

Over a mystical strand, 

Out of space, out of time, 

Lieth a beautiful land, 

Lieth a kingdom sublime ; 

And, flooding this realm that is near and far, 
Rays of Truth we but faintly see 
Flash past the shores of Eternity, 
Flash on our little night below. 
With silver twinkle and golden glow, 

Each a new and radiant star ; 

And voices of Truth we but faintly hear, 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. IQ 

Sweet as the music of rolling sphere, 
Fall in celestial harmony, 
"Soul, thou shalt live unceasingly" — 
Flowing, flowing, a beautiful chime — 

O, my spirit. 

Dost thou hear it 
Echoing over a golden strand from an Elysian clime? 

XII. 

And mingling with this voice afar 

Comes another that whispers clear — 
The effects and causes of what we are 

Flowing around an eternal sphere. 
Nature says through her wonderful plan, 
"Man is immortal, a god is man." 
The stars speak to us and field and wood, 
A spirit that dwells in the solitude, 
And all that is noble and great and good, 

Together we upward strive. 



20 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

Out of the silence there comes a voice, 

Which says to my soul, "Rejoice, rejoice, 

And know that to be 

Is enough, when you see 

There is nothing but immortality. 

Then thanks to the One -Life give." 
And out of my heart a little bird springs 
And hearkens and listens and sings and sings. 
The voices of Being in rapture swell 

And merging, float 

Into one full note, 
That says, "Rest peacefully, soul, 'tis well." 
The glad winds bring it. 
The sweet birds sing it, 

"Soul, thou wilt live, wilt live." 
Softly shines a mystic star, 

On my spirit 'tis breaking clear; 
And past Eternity's shore afar 

Beacons from heaven's inmost sphere. 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 



XIII. 



Out of the creeds and systems of men 

Two thoughts have ever risen supreme — 

The eternal God of the Universe 

And the ever-developing God-in-AIan ; 

And whenever these thoughts were shattered, again 

Sprang they to life, a perennial dream — 

Sprang as the flowers into gentle birth, 

Which the sun and the wind and the rain storms nurse, 

Sprang as the forms from the warm-hearted earth. 

Sprang, 'neath the vivifying beam, 

That struggles from out the beautiful plan — 

Running through better and running through worse 

To the boundless walls of the Universe — 

Giving life to the germ in the heart of man. 

XIV. 

Our souls are developing upward out of the night, 
Forever upward, upward, into the light ; 
And creeds grow old and systems wane, 



22 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

But these germinal truths forever remain — 

The ever-Hving God on high 

And the struggling God in Humanity. 

In the mass of men they sleep, but a word, 

A touch, or a love will bring them to life; 

And the spirit once by their passion stirred 

Is evermore with their glory rife. 

And thus through the years, like a golden gleam. 

Shines unto mankind the Immortal Dream, 

To grow more bright, forever more bright. 

As the souls of men struggle out of the night. 

To see Truth's radiant, growing light. 

XV. 

There is an Eternity beyond, 

Soul of Man ; 
For this is the dream divine that has dawned, 

A part of the Cosmical Plan, 
That unfolds at last on our little ken. 
It grows from the natures and hearts of men. 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 23 

It grows from the seed there sown of God. 

Man spurns beneath his feet the clod 

And feels as if allied by birth 

To something beyond his bonds of earth. 

He hears a voice that comes from far, 

And sometimes o'er the fleshly bar 

That separates the things that are 

- From those that seem, 
He sees the shining of a star, 

To light his dream. 
He looks upon a brighter fate, 
A fairer state that lies in wait 
Somewhere beyond the Future's gate. 
And there are times when his soul ascends 

To a clearer air on the mental heights. 
And when, though dimly, he apprehends 

There is a spirit that all unites; 
That under all being there is a soul ; 
That life is a garment seamless and whole; 

That all things are immortal ; 



24 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

That spirits throughout all Existence range, 

Through lives that are new and forms that are strange; 

That earth is a room and birth is a portal 
In the Infinite Mansions of Change. 
For this is the dream divine that has dawned : 

Man, as a part 

Of the unified Whole, 

A throb in the heart 
Of the Cosmical Soul, 
In the All-Life, shall life beyond. 

XVI. 

The plant would not grow. 

Were it not for the flower ; 
And the flower would not blow, 

Were it not for the fruit. 
'Twas the Spirit of Worlds that made them so. 

He covers their stronger framework of power 
With a rounding and softening loveliness, 

The beauty of perfect symmetry, 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 25 

That they, in this gentler mode, may express 

The nature of Love in Divinity, 
The touches that all His creation grace; 
And so from the visible worlds, apace. 
Life grows as the leaf and bursts forth as the flower 

From matter, which is but the stock and the root, 

While Eternity gathers the fruit. 

XVIL 

What does the spirit say 

Of the specter that we call Death? 
" 'Tis only the stealing away 

Of a heavenly breath. 
And the ashen hue upon the cheeks and lips 
Is not from the Sun of Life's eclipse. 
But rather falls from the dawning gray 
Of a better, a sweeter, a gladder day; 
Nor is death the orge, repulsive, cold 
That we have been told. 
But an angel of God that comes to us, 



26 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

Whose face with compassion is luminous, 
A lover bold, 

With kisses warm, 

Who woos the soul in her starry form 
From the dream of Sense, 

In which she was held; 
And he bears her hence. 

Her sleep dispelled, 
Till, broad awake, 

She, with sweet surprise, 
Sees the new dawn-break. 

With immortal eyes." 
It is thus that the Spirit saith 
Of the specter that we call Death : 
"Death is the angel that opes the portal 

Unto a higher way. 
Life is eternal ; man is immortal. 

Rising victorious, 

Radiant, glorious. 
Out of the clay; 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 2/ 

Out of the bounds of time, 
Into the realms sublime, 
Into a golden clime. 
Into the day." 

XVIII. 
Would you walk in the Gardens of God, 

Where each soul is a flower that blows ; 
Where each thought is an opening bud. 

And each heart is a rose ; 
Where each blossom is turned to the light 

Of the Sun, ever hanging at morn ; 
And a dew-drop that love renders bright 

In each bosom is worn ; 
Where the language is thought that out-leaps, 

Unspoken, from soul unto soul ; 
Where the music swells up from the deeps, 

Like a sweet organ roll. 
That is set to a Cosmical key, 

And is universal in chord, 



\ 



28 IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

All worlds choiring harmony 

Of praise to the Lord ? 
There time is not counted by measure, 

But only by states of delight. 
There Truth seems as Beauty; and Pleasure 

Is wedded with Right. 
There to sow is to garner ; to earn 

Is to have ; to aspire is to be ; 
To attain is the fruit of to yearn ; 

And to dream is to see. 
There action is one with repose. 

There the ages with eider are shod. 
There Love is the sunlight that glows, 

In the Gardens of God. 

XIX. 
Over a mystical strand, 

Out of space, out of time, 
Lieth a beautiful land, 

Lieth a kingdom sublime. 



IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 29 

Reigneth Eternity's King, 

Upon the Infinite Shore, 
With seraphs that sweetly sing 

His glories forevermore. 
And the worlds that sprinkle the night, 
In glittering clusters of light, 
That glow like beacons bright, 
In this. 
These are the gardens of souls 

That lead to this kingdom of His. 
These are the Fortunate Isles 

Placed over the Infinite Sea, 
That, 'neath the sun-like smiles 
Of Divinity, 
That, 'neath the splendor which rolls 
From the Throne, 
Their flowers may blow 
And their fruits may grow, 

That the King of the harvest may claim His own. 



JO IN THE GARDENS OF GOD. 

This is the mystical source, 
This is the fountain of force, 
The spring of the Universe. 
This is the land sublime, 

Where dwells the seraph band. 
This is the Elysian clime. 

The Spirit Land. 



JUN 2 1904 



Works of 

yames Arthur Rdgerton 

Voices of the Morning. 

Containing over fifty poems of the New Time. Bound in 
cloth, gilt top and back, 12 mo., 121 pages. Price, 75 cents. 
B. O. Flower, in the Coming Age— 

This young poet of the Western plains seems to me to have 
caught the spirit of the prophet voices who have been an inspira- 
tion to the toilers throughout the generations of the past. 

Songs of the People. 

Containing over 100 poems, handsomely bound in cloth, 12 mo., 
221 pages. Price, $1.00. 
William J. Bryan— 

There is a healthy optimism and a broad humanity running 
through these pieces, and the sentiment is often expressed with 
force and eloquence. 

Glimpses of the Real. 

Essays originally appearing as Sunday editorials in the Den- 
ver News. Cloth, 12 mo. 202 pages. Price, $1.00. 
Denver Times — 

The volume is throughout one of deep spirituality and faith 
Mtnvea polls Piogrrss — 

The message of the book is one of help and hope, inspiration 
and upliftment. 

Ihe Essene. 

A monthly magazine, devoted to spiritual and humanitarian 
subjects. Of this Mr. Edgerton is editor. Ten cents per copy, 
$1.00 per year. 
For any of the above, address 

THE ESSENE, 

59 Park Place, New York. 



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